PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas -- It might seem as if Andre Hollins was making a statement to his hometown university with his career-high 41 points on Friday, Nov. 23, but his memorable effort was so much more than that.

Not until after the University of Minnesota sophomore point guard sparked the Gophers (5-1) to an 84-75 victory over No. 19 Memphis (2-2) did Hollins' family find out had inspired the spectacular performance: his late grandmother.

After giving her 19-year-old son a postgame bear hug and kiss in the hallway at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, Donna Hollins, wearing a maroon Gophers shirt with "Hollins" on the back, walked away with tears in her eyes.

On Saturday, Hollins' grandmother, Willie Mae Boone, died peacefully at her home in Memphis at age 86, according to Memphis newspapers. Her funeral was Wednesday, the day before Hollins struggled with a 12-point outing on 4-for-13 shooting in an 89-71 opening-round loss to No. 5 Duke.

Hollins, a Tennessee Mr. Basketball out of Memphis White Station High School, did not mention his grandmother during the postgame news conference Friday. He smiled brightly -- as he usually does -- talking about the best scoring display for a Gophers player since Oliver Shannon tied a school record with 42 points in 1971.

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"I was focused for today," he said. "We had to redeem ourselves from losing to Duke. We're a better team than that."

Hollins' previous career high at Minnesota was 25 points against Northwestern in the Big Ten tournament last season. His personal best was 46 points against No. 1-ranked Findlay Prep from Las Vegas in high school two years ago.

On Friday, Hollins missed his first shot about three minutes into the game but then sank nine straight, including four three- pointers, to score 24 first-half points.

Junior forward Rodney Williams said, "It was pretty much give Andre the ball and see what happens with it."

Hollins finished 12 for 16 from the field (5 for 5 on three-pointers) and 12 for 13 from the free-throw line.

His breakout game really did come out of nowhere. He struggled in the first two games, managing just 10 points combined on 2-for-15 shooting, because he was trying to show he was a facilitating point guard. Hollins dished out a career-best seven assists with one turnover in the season-opening win over American. But some of his teammates heard him talking about not wanting to fall into a sophomore slump.

Hollins had three straight double-figure scoring games entering Friday, despite shooting 29 percent from the field, 23 percent from three-point range and 70 percent from the foul line. But Smith said Hollins was improving on defense and as a leader.

"He is really evolving into a complete player," Smith said. "(He's) running the team and understanding the flow of the game, the tempo of the game, all those things you have to do as a point guard."

The 6-foot-1 200-pounder played point guard for the first time as a high school senior and still averaged 24 points a game that season. Last season, Hollins started at point guard for the Gophers' first 10 games before suffering an ankle injury. He missed only one game but wasn't a major factor until a 20-point game against Wisconsin in February -- the first of five 20-point games late in the season.

One of his biggest games was when he had 20 of his 24 points in the second half of an NIT quarterfinal win over Middle Tennessee at the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn. -- the same arena where he played in four high school state tournaments and won a state championship as a sophomore.

"I met Andre in high school," Memphis junior forward Tarik Black said. "We actually went to (rival) high schools. He was a good player then, and he's proving to be a good player now."

Black's college teammates Joe Jackson and Ferrakohn Hall played with Hollins at White Station. And Tigers sophomore forward Adonis Thomas played AAU basketball with Hollins with the Memphis Roar. Fellow Gopher Austin Hollins also is from Memphis.

"I've been playing against them since I was 9 years old," Andre Hollins said. "I was definitely comfortable playing them. But I knew it was going to be hard."

Friday's show was for his "Granny," but even Hollins didn't know it was going to be that special -- not until his second deep three- pointer went through the hoop.

"That's when I knew; I was like, 'I got it today,' " he said. "I found my stroke."